Malcolm vs Sniffnet
Malcolm
idaholab.github.ioSniffnet
sniffnet.appSide by side
| Figure | Malcolm | Sniffnet |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 0 | 2 |
| Spec score · Network Packet Analyzer Software | 7.8 (#19) | 8.2 (#11) |
| Integrations | Components include NetBox for asset-inventory enrichment, Keycloak for identity and access management, and nginx-auth-ldap for LDAP authentication. | The webhook documentation gives SIGNL4, IFTTT, Svix and Webhook.site as compatible notification receivers. |
| Purpose | Malcolm is an easily deployable network traffic analysis tool suite for security monitoring. | Sniffnet is a network monitoring app for keeping track of Internet traffic, checking bandwidth usage, and inspecting network activity. |
| Security | Communications between Malcolm interfaces and remote log forwarders use industry-standard encryption protocols. | A 2025 security audit covered static analysis, dependency checking, code analysis and fuzzing, dynamic analysis on most supported platforms, and interactive testing; its only relevant finding was low severity and had been fixed. |
Plans
In their own words
Malcolm
Malcolm is a free suite for network traffic analysis and security monitoring. It accepts PCAP files, Zeek logs and Suricata alerts through a browser interface, and can also receive live traffic through lightweight forwarders. Session data can be enriched with GeoIP, hardware-vendor, asset-inventory and JA4 fingerprinting lookups. Analysts can use prebuilt OpenSearch Dashboards or search and identify sessions with Arkime. Malcolm runs in containers and supports Docker, Podman and Kubernetes deployments; a standalone Debian-based installer ISO is also available. Analysis is accessed through a browser, and the project documents host setup for Linux, macOS and Windows. Authentication options include local accounts, LDAP, TLS certificates and Keycloak. The software provides a REST API and is released under Apache License 2.0. A deployment constraint is that rootless Podman cannot capture traffic on local network interfaces, though Malcolm can accept metadata forwarded from a network sensor appliance. The installer also formats all non-removable storage without warning.
Sniffnet
Sniffnet is a free network monitoring app for Linux, macOS, and Windows. It displays overall internet traffic statistics and real-time charts, and can show which programs use bandwidth. Users can choose a network adapter, filter observed traffic, and import or export PCAP capture reports. Sniffnet identifies local network connections, shows remote hosts’ geographical locations, and finds host domain names and ASNs. It recognizes more than 6,000 upper-layer services, protocols, trojans, and worms. Users can configure notifications for network events and import custom IP blacklists to highlight potentially dangerous connections. The app supports live capture, display filters, protocol dissectors, and offline trace analysis; it reads PCAPNG and CAP files as well as PCAP. Custom themes and 26 languages are available. The listed Sniffnet plan is free and the software is open-source under MIT or Apache-2.0. A 2025 security audit reported one low-severity finding, which had been fixed. Most functionality uses offline databases, while reverse DNS lookups provide hostnames for IP addresses.